Prof. Lazim Abdullah
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia

Mohd Lazim Abdullah is a Computational Mathematics Professor at the Faculty of Ocean Engineering Technology and Informatics, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT). He obtained his first degree (Mathematics) from University of Malaya, in June 1984 and a Master's Degree (Mathematics Education) from the Universiti Sains Malaysia in 1999. He received his Ph.D (Development of Information Technology) from the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, in 2004. He began his career as audit trainee at the international audit firm based in Kuala Lumpur, Arthur Young & Co for five months before joining public sector as mathematics teacher in Oct 1984 at Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) Kuantan. He served at several MRSMs nationwide prior to joining academic world in late 2006. His last post with MARA was Mathematics Expert Teacher at MRSM Yayasan Terengganu Besut. In December 2006, he joined University Malaysia Terengganu as senior lecturer at Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Technology.

Upon joining the university, Dr Mohd Lazim has always prioritised research activities as his biggest passion. His research and expertise focuses on fuzzy set theory of mathematics, decision making and its applications to social ecology, environment, health sciences and management. He is interested in the measurement of social indicators, measuring index of health related quality of life, environmental evaluation and business using combinations of fuzzy sets theory, multi-criteria decision making and statistics approaches. Thus far, he has been successfully led several research projects in the field of fuzzy decision making, fuzzy mathematics and social statistics. His research findings have been published in more than 300 publications including 184 refereed journals, 115 conference proceedings, and 24 chapters in book. Dr Mohd Lazim also has authored 6 textbooks and 3 monographs in the fields of statistics and decision making. With 140 documents, and 623 citations in database Scopus, Dr Mohd Lazim has proved that he is one of the academic leaders in his field.

Striving toward excellence is always the main principle to Dr Mohd Lazim. Based on this principle and added with his vast experience in teaching, he successfully excelled in teaching and supervision. He always believes that the important factor to spur interest of students is by providing them with well organised teaching materials, student-centered teaching approaches and technology based teaching methods. As to appreciate his passion in technology based teaching method, Dr Mohd Lazim was honoured as the recipient of MyLearn Award by the university. Apart from that, he is also actively conducting research in his field of interests through supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students. He has successfully supervised more than hundred undergraduate students, twenty three masters students and twelve PhD students. Currently, he is supervising six undergraduate students, two masters’ students and eight PhD students in the area of fuzzy mathematics, fuzzy decision making and social statistics.

Academic recognitions particularly from peers come when one begins to establish ‘brand’ and reputations among scientific or academic community. Several significant achievements and recognitions in Dr Mohd Lazim academic career clearly indicates that his work is recognised and appreciated. Among the national and international recognitions are Best Article Journal’s Award 2011 (Springer-Verlag International), Annual’s Best Scientist Award 2010 (UMT), Best Research Publication Award 2015 (UMT) and Promising Researcher Award 2008 (Faculty). He is also a frequent and reliable reviewer to well-known impact factor journals in his field. He is currently a reviewer to several international journals including high impact factor journals such as Applied Soft Computing, Information Technology and Decision Making, Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge-based System, Soft Computing and Neural Computing and Applications. Dr Mohd Lazim also serves as editorial board to six international journals including International Journal of Fuzzy Systems and Rough Systems, and Journal of Computational Intelligence and Electronic Systems. He is also actively involved in scientific committee of several symposia and national and international conferences. He was a general chair of three International seminars and symposium and international Scientific Committee for several international conferences worldwide. To further strengthen his international networkings, Dr Mohd Lazim has been jointly worked with Prof Ravi Shankar, GITAM University and Prof Sanjay Kumar, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, from India, Prof Enrique Herrera from University of Granada, Spain, Prof Saleem Abdullah from Abdul Wali Khan University, Pakistan and Prof Huchang Liao from Sichuan University, China to complete joint research paper in fuzzy decision making.

Despite a busy schedule of administrative works, research and teaching, Dr Mohd Lazim is actively involved in academic quality management and society. Dr Mohd Lazim is a certified MS ISO university internal auditor, assessor of undergraduate and postgraduate academic programmes at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Apart from that, Dr Mohd Lazim also has been appointed by University Technology Petronas as external assessor for Yayasan UTP-FRG projects, 2017-2022. He is also an assessor of Fundamental Research Grant Scheme and Trans-disciplinary Research Grant Scheme at Ministry level. In administrative works at university level, he was Director, Centre of Academic Planning, Development and Quality, Head of e-learning, and Deputy Dean of School of Informatics and Applied Mathematics. In addition, he was the President of the Academic Staff Association UMT, 2010-2012 and committee of Parent Teacher Association of SK Pusat Chabang Tiga, 2007-2011. Currently, he is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. Dr Mohd Lazim is a member of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, a member of International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making and a member of the Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society.